Clint Black on new music and career

By Lauren Moraski

December 23, 2015 / 6:14 AM
/ CBS News

While growing up, Clint Black gravitated towards music that originated with the songwriter. He'd listen to the likes of James Taylor, Waylon Jennings, Jim Croce, Jimmy Buffett and Willie Nelson, realizing early on that he wanted to write his own music and make it authentic. Through it all, Black's father served as inspiration.

"Going back to the my early childhood, he would show me his 45 records ... he would show me that this is the artist's name and the name under that is the songwriter and the name under that is the producer. He gave me an appreciation early on for the artist and the people behind the music," Clint told CBS News.

Black says his dad "couldn't sing his way out of paper bag," but he certainly was a big music fan.

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"He told me at one point before I made it in the business that he really wanted me to make it and told me he was worried about country music. He told me with his eyes tearing up that I could save country music. And he really believed that," Black said about his father, G.A., who died in 2012 at the age of 78.

Three years later, Black decided to dedicate his album, "On Purpose," to his father. It's an album that was several years in the making, coming a decade after his previous studio release, "Drinkin' Songs and Other Logic."

Black wrote the songs on the set -- there's the fun, "frivolous" "Beer" and a few other lighthearted tracks. Then there's "Stay Gone," a song Black says "deals with the things that kill us" -- ranging from addiction to disease. "It was a deep look for me," he said. "The Last Day" is another one of those more heartfelt, thoughtful tunes on the record. The song "You Still Get to Me," meanwhile, is a take on relationships and his wife. "After 24 years of marriage, she still gets to me," he said.

"Mostly I think what you can find in this album is ... an attempt to dive down deep into those pearls of wisdom that some have imparted on me, or that I have found on my own. I wanted to speak to those in a new way," he said about his 10th studio album.

And with that, Black has accomplished what he set out to do in the first place: to write authentic music that's his own.

The 53-year-old singer just wrapped up a Christmas tour and has a batch of theater tour dates set up for 2016 from February into the fall. He's performing a range of material -- stemming from his 1989 debut, "Killin' Time" through "On Purpose."

"I'm loving the intimacy with the audience," he said.

Check out the video above for more of our sit-down interview with Black.